She-Hulk is one of Marvel’s most renowned comic-book characters. As a close cousin of the legendary Incredible Hulk, Jennifer Walters is bound to fall head-first into trouble. With the insane popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was only a matter of time before she would get her own spot in the MCU.
With filming beginning in April of 2021, “She-Hulk: Attorney At Law” released a little over a year later in August of 2022. "She-Hulk" is a show that aims to drop this new character into this universe we know so well, but this show, in particular, attempts to do it a little differently. With a narrative that seems to cherish its comedic moments more than its plot, where and how does “She-Hulk: Attorney At Law” miss the mark?
When Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) and her cousin Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) are injured in a car accident, the radioactive blood of Bruce Banner is mixed into Jennifer Walters’s bloodstream causing her to assume the powers of the Hulk. Having to bear now the curse of being a hulk, Jennifer struggles to continue her life as a lawyer. As trouble finds its way into Jennifer's life, she goes through many trials and tribulations as she realizes that she must embrace the superhero life.
To accurately judge the show's shortcomings, we first have to analyze what the show does rather well. To start, Tatiana Maslany does a smashing job playing the part of Jennifer Walters and She-Hulk. Frankly, everyone in this show plays their character effectively. Never once was the quality of the acting an issue. “She-Hulk” also has a good sense of humor, and most of the jokes land surprisingly well. The issue with this show's humor lies in its timing and what feels like the almost excessive use of jokes.
In fact, “She-Hulk: Attorney At Law” is incredibly messy. The plot follows an extremely slow series of events, and then in the final two episodes, the show flies by with no explanation of what or how these things are happening. For example, in episode 4, a significant portion of the episode is spent centered around Jennifer using the She-Hulk identity to make an online dating profile so she can “get back in the dating game.”
When we look at previous Marvel shows we see that by episode 4, they're typically getting closer to revealing the big plans for the finale. However in "She-Hulk," there's not much of an overarching plot to move the show, so most episodes feel superfluous and stagnant. And by the last two episodes, the show’s crescendo is just thrown at the viewer and it feels incredibly rushed.
Spoilers ahead for an in-depth discussion about the “She-Hulk: Attorney At Law” Finale Episode.
“She-Hulk”s finale is a particularly low spot for the series as a whole. Jennifer reaps the consequences of her actions after an outburst at a lawyer’s award ceremony. When Jennifer is hit with a targeted exposé that reveals her entire personal life to the audience, she loses control and begins to destroy the convention. After she calms down at a controlled facility, she leaves to seek advice from a previous client. When she finds her old client at a meeting for an incel group known as “Intelligencia”, where it's revealed to her that another client who had previously been an issue was actually behind the exposé.
From here, the story becomes increasingly messy where the writers suddenly introduce more villains from older episodes, and out of nowhere Bruce Banner returns after being in space for the last 8 episodes. Then, way out of left field, the show takes a massive turn and shatters the fourth wall as She-Hulk stops the show and asks the viewer, “Who’s show is this?” as implied by the title of the episode. The show then cuts to the Disney + home menu where She-Hulk opens the title card of her show to somehow enter another show's universe. She enters the universe of “Marvel’s: Assembled” where they detail the making of other Marvel productions. She speaks to the storyboard writers of “She-Hulk” and decides she needs to talk to “Kevin”, the real decision-maker behind all Marvel stories.
Jennifer fights security to get to Kevin and when she eventually reaches him, we see that Kevin is a sentient A.I., programmed to write all of the Marvel shows and movies. After bargaining with the now-revealed K.E.V.I.N. Jennifer gets the ending she wants for her series and all is settled. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is known for its in-depth lore; however, “She-Hulk” leaves a lot to be questioned about its finale without setting up much of a sequel, which feels extremely out of place for the MCU.
“She-Hulk Attorney At Law” is a show that is, for the most part, produced with above-average acting and a few decent jokes. This show's overuse of humor and lack of any actual plot plagues it. The mess we as viewers spend around 5 hours watching, feels rushed and neglected by Marvel higher-ups who don’t seem to care about the final product. Ultimately, while there are some positives to this show, they all seem to be heavily outweighed by the negatives.
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